We just saw an old John Wayne western movie last night, Three God Fathers. My guess is that it was filmed in the Owens valley on the old Carson and Colorado. The loco was #9 a 4-6-0 complete with whale back tender and pulling a flat car/horse car and a combine. This is a 1948 movie.
Paul
Looks like you were right; here's a location list from a movie site:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040064/locations
I understand the Owens Valley line was used in a number of films, among them "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," with Humphrey Bogart.
john wayne also did the ":hurricane express" with southern pacific engines
A couple of cool movies (at least I think so)--
"Broadway Limited," 1941--movie studio tries a publicity stunt with a baby, with problems that occur as the baby and the actress in the stunt make their way to New York on the Pennsy's Broadway Limited:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5OpOU4HFNY
"Powderkeg!"--1971, pilot episode for the "Bearcats" television series; mercenaries take on Mexican revolutionists in 1914:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF3ZwkcpU-k
Have fun.
The "Three Godfathers" was indeed done on the SPNG. THe depot and water tank featured in the movie were built for the film. Some of the equipment still exists at the SPNG museum which I believe is in Laws, California.
The Harvey Girls is more of a musical than a train film, however it does have some nice history about the Santa Fe railroad. Because of when it was made they had a steam locomotive as power for the train.
Lee F.
Quote from: beampaul7 on March 04, 2012, 08:15:23 PM
We just saw an old John Wayne western movie last night, Three God Fathers. My guess is that it was filmed in the Owens valley on the old Carson and Colorado. The loco was #9 a 4-6-0 complete with whale back tender and pulling a flat car/horse car and a combine. This is a 1948 movie.
Paul
I'll have to work for that one. I never knew they did any movie work on the C&C.
Not a movie, but a dear friend recently sent me a half a dozen discs of recordings he made of the old TV series
Iron Horse, with Dale Robertson.
Evidently they had a mock-up of Sierra #3 that was used "on set." It wasn't very well proportioned. The boiler looks too big to me, and the domes way too small.
Quote from: phillyreading on March 06, 2012, 10:51:39 AM
The Harvey Girls is more of a musical than a train film, however it does have some nice history about the Santa Fe railroad. Because of when it was made they had a steam locomotive as power for the train.
Lee F.
I think the engine was the old V&T
Inyo.
This is more of a sit-com series than a movie, Petticoat Junction. The passenger car was a combo baggage and passenger. They even had a handcar being used at times.
Lee F.
Both "Petticoat Jct." and "Iron Horse" used Sierra RR No. 3 for their location shots. The engine was recently returned to service after a long overhaul. The on-set mock-ups had a passing resemblence to the real loco.
Quote from: phillyreading on March 06, 2012, 12:15:47 PM
This is more of a sit-com series than a movie, Petticoat Junction. The passenger car was a combo baggage and passenger. They even had a handcar being used at times.
Lee F.
One of these days (years?) I need to get around to seeing the British movie
The Titfield Thunderbolt. What I have read of the plot of the film--English villagers try to save their local rail service from being shut down--sounds to me suspiciously like the premise of
Petticoat Junction, at least initially--the Bradleys and their friends and neighbors from Hooterville trying to keep the C&FW Railroad from scrapping the
Hooterville Cannonball.Incidentally, if you ever get to see the pilot episode for
Petticoat Junction, watch very carefully and quickly the scene set in the railroad boardroom. Although that episode is in black and white, if you watch carefully, you can see that the large mock-up of an F-unit diesel that sits on the boardroom table is clearly decorated in the Santa Fe's Warbonnet paint scheme. ;D
When I went on vacation out West a few years ago, I saw #3 when she was still disassembled. It was like seeing a movie star all torn apart. Kind of sad for me at the time.
Quote from: Terry Toenges on March 06, 2012, 03:16:43 PM
When I went on vacation out West a few years ago, I saw #3 when she was still disassembled. It was like seeing a movie star all torn apart. Kind of sad for me at the time.
I can imagine it was. That engine has been in so many TV shows and movies that it's like it's an old friend.
It's good to know that it's been put back together again and is in service. :)
One of my goals is to "visit" it some day. I guess you could say that's on my bucket list. ;D
Johnson Bar, I've seen "The Titfield Thunderbolt," and can personally say it's one of the most delightful films I've seen in years. It's a comedy about villagers wanting to save their branch line, and yet also has a number of accurate technical aspects to it (i.e., the different regulations for a "light railway" operating certificate).
One of the wildest parts of the movie involves the efforts two of the (drunken) principals to acquire a replacement locomotive after their own engine is wrecked by sabotage (courtesy of a rival bus company). They just steal an identical locomotive from an engine terminal--but fail to line up the turntable properly! The result is a locomotive running down streets and roads (disguised truck, really), scaring auto drivers off roads, waking up people sleeping in houses along the road, being chased by a policeman on a bicycle, and ending up hitting a tree. In the police station, the charges against the two include operating an overweight vehicle, unlicensed vehicle, vehicle lacking proper lights, operators without a license, public intoxication, drunken driving, reckless driving, etc.--wonderful list of charges!
The whole movie used to be on YouTube, but sadly no longer is (I'm going to guess over copyright issues), but some clips are on, with some unfortunate music choices. Consider these a preview of what you'll get to see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZsurlCbAsk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=jexGJsppkP0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lwhnpq4cTY&feature=endscreen&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-pEqKxXkus&feature=related
A footnote: the "replacement: locomotive the little road gets is the "Thunderbolt" (actually the "Lion"), a very early locomotive that is preserved and still operational--and note that it has a pair of early safety valves, operated through levers to springs in cases. These were discussed in another thread on early 4-4-0s in America that also used this arrangement, and here they are, in real life, keeping the steam pressure down in a locomotive from the 1830s. . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ZHUcQDXEFpA
Sadly, both the branch line and the main line featured in the opening are now gone. . .
Do get the movie, you won't be disappointed.
Quote from: J3a-614 on March 09, 2012, 01:53:25 AM
Do get the movie, you won't be disappointed.
Thanks for all that, J3a. I guess the fact that I haven't seen it yet has mostly to do with my being a chronic procrastinator. ... :-\ ::)
Never enough time, never enough. ... :-\
Link to an earlier discussion on train movies, with titles in the discussion:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,6894.0.html
Link to the 1930 classic, "Danger Lights," shot on the Milwaukee Road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM07gDi_ds0
One episode of a movie "serial" (actually a series, not a "cliff-hanger" type as the serial form would later become), "The Wild Engine," episode 26 from the "Hazards of Helen" series in the silent era:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rb3ZKwmRis&feature=related
Some other clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OcdUqNGCxA&feature=related
if anyone remembers the older our gang comedys ,, i mean the silent ones filmed in the late 1920s, theres a show called sundwon limited where the our gang kids are running around a santa fe engine facility, with what looks like brand new or washed clean santa fe pacifics running by.
I am suprised that no one has mentioned "The General" or "The Railroader" with Buster Keaten.
Bruce
You can watch The Railrodder on the National Film Board of Canada's Youtube page. No, that isn't a spelling mistake. The title is Railrodder, not Railroader. I have no idea why.
What would have happened if the ad in the newspaper had been Drink Canada Dry instead of See Canada Now, I wonder?
There was a Laurel & Hardy movie from the 1930's, I think the 30's maybe late 1920's, anyway it has some older hopper cars from freight trains in it, I thought that Lionel had dreamed up the idea for one of their prewar hoppers(#3659) but after seeing that movie I can see where Lionel got the protoype from. The hopper is a side dumping one with a V shaped bin.
So before you say that something was never made, check back in history a few years or more.
Lee F.
Two DVD's I got recently: "Sinister Journey " starring William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy) on the SP narrow gauge--
"A Ticket to Tomahawk" Dan Dailey and Ann Bancroft--loco is RGS 20, mockup was built for close-ups and the big sequence of hauling the loco overland. This was alsso used for studio shots in Petticoat Jct. Now being restored in Durango as a trade for the returned-to-service D&RGW 315
gj
For John Tricarico, a double feature:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CpStbku ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5tAnll0WTQ
I have to call these guilty pleasures--shouldn't like these, they're as politically incorrect as can be but I find them hilarious, had forgotten how funny those kids could be, but yikes, the !!@#$%&*$#!!! chances they took with running a locomotive over a kid!!
I know this was done slowly with undercranked cameras, and the later version of the same stunt looks like it may have been done with a puppet, but still. . .
Then there was that crazy train on one set of wheels in "Unstoppable". . .
The movie "Unstoppable" had too many crazy things in it; first a locomotive that gets away from the engineer(modern diesels have a failsafe switch or deadman switch-that, must be activated every 25 to 30 seconds or the emergency brakes come on, won't allow an engine to move if nobody is in the cab), second the brake lines have to be connected or the freight cars won't move except by manual override. Freight cars were parked in the yard area and the engineer didn't hook up close to half the service airlines. Nobody jumps out of a moving engine to throw a switch manually.
Common sense tells you that the movie "Unstoppable" is a Hollywood fantasy!!
Lee F.
The marx Brothers did a movie featuring a ride on a trai, in which Groucho and Harpo were running the locomotive. I was building a wall unit at the time, so all I could afford was an occasional passing glance at the TV; but I do remember one of groucho's lines as "...Well, pop goes the diesel", and thought that as typical of Groucho's razor sharp and lightening quick lines.
Rich
Quote from: phillyreading on March 13, 2012, 07:50:24 AM
The movie "Unstoppable" had too many crazy things in it; first a locomotive that gets away from the engineer(modern diesels have a failsafe switch or deadman switch-that, must be activated every 25 to 30 seconds or the emergency brakes come on, won't allow an engine to move if nobody is in the cab), second the brake lines have to be connected or the freight cars won't move except by manual override. Freight cars were parked in the yard area and the engineer didn't hook up close to half the service airlines. Nobody jumps out of a moving engine to throw a switch manually.
Common sense tells you that the movie "Unstoppable" is a Hollywood fantasy!!
Lee F.
I could not suspend disbelief long enough for the movie trailer before the movie was release so I never did go see the movie.
Below is what happened. Store the link in Favorites.
http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/z-final-report.htm
Three people where in danger. Chase loco crew and the 52 year old RR supervisor who had to step on the runaway loco at a 12 mph. The chase loco was running backwards so the loco engineer could not see right hand curves coming up. The conductor up "front" at the rear of the loco used hand signals to let the engineer know about right hand curves, Max speed for this type of loco unloaded is about 25 mph. They sometimes where doing 65 mph to catch up. Remember, the runaway loco was running at full throttle.
I have the article printed March 2002 if anyone is interested.
Rich
Quote from: glennk28 on March 12, 2012, 07:50:18 PM
"A Ticket to Tomahawk" Dan Dailey and Ann Bancroft--loco is RGS 20, mockup was built for close-ups and the big sequence of hauling the loco overland. This was alsso used for studio shots in Petticoat Jct. Now being restored in Durango as a trade for the returned-to-service D&RGW 315
gj
Close, but it was Anne Baxter (of
All About Eve and
The Ten Commandments). A weird movie, IMO, with Anne Baxter riding horses and shooting guns and trying to sound countrified, but I watched it again a few weeks ago for the first time in years. I knew it was filmed on the Silverton branch, and since I rode the Durango & Silverton last spring, I wanted to see if I recognized any of the scenery. I did. The High Line is unmistakeable, and the town of "Tomahawk" is unmistakeably Silverton, Colorado.
I knew it was Anne Baxter--how did that clip past my spell checker?? 8^)) gj
The movie, "Ticket to Tomahawk" also features a young, young Marilyn Monroe as one of the chorus girls.
The Marx Brothers movie in question is "Go West," and it has one wild, wild train sequence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOUC_D2DAn8
Now if I could figure out how to get money this way, and actually get it to work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve4TybVfMh8&feature=related
Not really rail-rrelated--but one of Marilyn Monroe's first movie appearances was also the last Marx Bro's movies--"Love Happy" in which she is a client of lawyer Groucho. gj
Groucho and Monroe-what a hoot!
As mentioned by Richg, about the movie "Unstoppable", this was common practice for the Pennsy RR, as they ran their diesel engines with the cab in the rear on the mainline service. :o
Lee F.
Quote from: phillyreading on March 21, 2012, 03:20:01 PM
As mentioned by Richg, about the movie "Unstoppable", this was common practice for the Pennsy RR, as they ran their diesel engines with the cab in the rear on the mainline service. :o
Lee F.
But not at speeds approaching 70 mph.\
I ride a bicycle on a rail trail in Northampton, MA that is right along side the single track main for the Pan Am Railway and I see them always running the locos with the cab in the rear and pulling a freight south.
They return north pushing the freight but the max speed is about 20 mph, the tracks are so bad. I see a lot of spikes with the heads about 1/2 inch from the rail because of the flexing of the roadbed. The only track maintenance I have seen was a crew checking the gauge last summer.
But, this will become double track Amtrak also in a couple years at the most.
Delivery of coal to a nearby power plant was stopped for some time because of the track.
Rich
Like Rich mentions, you should see the track conditions on the CSX line here in West Palm Beach FL, the spikes are sticking up quite a bit almost two inches out of the cross tie, and to think that Amtrak comes through at over 50 mph is scary.
Also Central of Georgia RR near Camilla GA has some bad conditions but has lowered the max speed to about 15 to 20 mph on their freight line.
The best maintained tracks, that I have seen, belong to Florida East Coast RR.
Lee F.
Classic Trains Magazine had a special issue of the top 100 Train films Number 1 was
The Train with burt Lancaster.
Today would be a good day to watch either "The General" (silent), with Buster Keaton, or Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase," with Fess Parker and Jeffrey Hunter, as today is the 150th anniversary of the Andrews Raid. :)
Hey, Rich G!
Do you ever watch the Amtrak at Cushman's Market?
I go there often with my grandson George.
Have fun!
the Bach-man
Quote from: the Bach-man on April 12, 2012, 11:12:36 PM
Hey, Rich G!
Do you ever watch the Amtrak at Cushman's Market?
I go there often with my grandson George.
Have fun!
the Bach-man
Not in some time. I use to when I dated a woman in Amherst who became my second wife. She passed away some years ago.
I live in Easthampton and now ride my bicycle on the Manhan Rail Trail up into NoHo along the Pan Am Railway mainline. Amtrak as you know is supposed to be re-routed through NoHo in the future.
After I carry my bike across the Pan Am mainline, I get to Amherst on the Norwottuck Rail Trail but not to the Market.
Very interesting seeing where the railroads use to pickup and deliver.
Take care.
Rich
Hi, Rich,
Next time I'm in Amherst I'll let you know. We can have lunch and watch the Vermonter go through!
Best,
the Bach-man
Quote from: richg on March 13, 2012, 10:12:33 AM
The chase loco was running backwards so the loco engineer could not see right hand curves coming up. The conductor up "front" at the rear of the loco used hand signals to let the engineer know about right hand curves, Max speed for this type of loco unloaded is about 25 mph. They sometimes where doing 65 mph to catch up. Remember, the runaway loco was running at full throttle.
I have the article printed March 2002 if anyone is interested.
Rich
where did you get that information? prior to the conrail breakup, csxt 8888, originally cr 6410, often ran at speeds of up to 65mph on mainline trains. a diesel locomotivwe can run in either direction at whatever its gearing will allow, whether under load or just running light. similar locomotives ran light in pairs as helpers between pittsburgh and altoona for many years, until recently replaced by rebuilt sd50s.
while they may have gotten alot of things wrong in the movie, running an sd40-2 full speed in reverse isn't one of them.
n&w, for one, had the long hood designated as front, and running them long hood first was standard operating practice.
Quote from: jward on April 13, 2012, 11:04:51 PM
Quote from: richg on March 13, 2012, 10:12:33 AM
The chase loco was running backwards so the loco engineer could not see right hand curves coming up. The conductor up "front" at the rear of the loco used hand signals to let the engineer know about right hand curves, Max speed for this type of loco unloaded is about 25 mph. They sometimes where doing 65 mph to catch up. Remember, the runaway loco was running at full throttle.
I have the article printed March 2002 if anyone is interested.
Rich
where did you get that information? prior to the conrail breakup, csxt 8888, originally cr 6410, often ran at speeds of up to 65mph on mainline trains. a diesel locomotivwe can run in either direction at whatever its gearing will allow, whether under load or just running light. similar locomotives ran light in pairs as helpers between pittsburgh and altoona for many years, until recently replaced by rebuilt sd50s.
while they may have gotten alot of things wrong in the movie, running an sd40-2 full speed in reverse isn't one of them.
n&w, for one, had the long hood designated as front, and running them long hood first was standard operating practice.
Read "Readers Digest" March Edition 2002 about what actually happened. That is where I got my info. I have the magazine article in PDF.
Picture of the chase loco, CSX6462, engineer, conductor and the CSX supervisor who jumped on the runaway loco at about twelve mph to shut down the loco, CSX8888. The chase loco had to run quite fast just to catch up with the runaway.
http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/z-final-report.htm
You can believe anything you want to.
Rich
so....
do you think readers digest knows more about railroading than the people who actually worked there?
csxt 6462 is a gp40-2. conrail and others used them on mail trains when new. now they are reduced to local power, often running single in reverse with their train. at track speeds......
where readers digest probably made their mistake, and came up with the 25mph figure is that csxt 6462 is a slug mother. its slug will only provide traction up to about 25mph, then it cuts out and is just along for the ride. road slug sets are common on both csx and ns, and they operate at track speed as well. but the slug doesn't provide any pulling power except at low speeds. slugs draw power from the mother locomotive to run their traction motors. they need a power source as they have no diesel engines themselves (unlike b units which were a complete locomotive minus the cab)
in my own case, i've personally had trains where the lead locomotive, for whatever reason, had to run in reverse for significant distances. usually this was because there was nowhere to turn it, or it was the only one in the consist with cab signals. on certain lines, only cab signal equipped locomotives can lead a train.
running long hood first at high speeds is a very common practice.
Not according to what the loco engineer knew at the time according to the rule book for this type of loco.
Rich
Reader's Digest might have embellished the complete event.
Rich
Last night I watched "Silver Streak" on TV. I forgot how funny it was. Great cast plus the awesome "AMROAD" train.
:D :D
that was at least the second by that title--forst featyred the then-brand-new Burlington Zephyr and an unfinished Boulder Dam. gj
Well, back again, and with a new old title--"Oh, Mr. Porter!" from 1937, a British film set on a railway in Ireland. This is the complete movie, which wasn't available before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvvESEVKcHA